Dr Henry Jones

Associate Professor in Law

Affiliations
Affiliation	Telephone
Associate Professor in Law in the Durham Law School	+44 (0) 191 33 42838
Associate Fellow in the Institute of Advanced Study

Biography

Research

My research focuses on the history and spatiality of international law, both its theory and practice. It addresses contemporary problems by revealing how things came to be this way, and how they could be different.

My research to date has made two significant contributions within this framework. First, my research has uncovered the historic origins of key ideas of trade, property and morality in contemporary international law. This research was the subject of two articles and my award winning PhD thesis. This research builds upon the existing history of the discipline, but pushes the historical focus back to the 17th century law of nations and the engagement between European empires. I argue that global regulation of trade, property and war had its origins in these colonial encounters and that both the shortcomings and the potential of international law have to be understood in this context. This work crucially adds a focus on legal practice to the existing work in the history of legal ideas.

Second, my research aims to highlight questions of physical space in international law, a subject of growing academic interest and of immediate political concern. In the contemporary context of a global refugee crisis, a global financial crisis, and the hardening of boarders around the developed world, my research investigates the origins of international bordering and space demarcation. This research has so far led to three articles addressing the sea, land, and international law and spatial theory. All of this research is complementary to and complimented by my work with IBRU: Durham Centre fo Border Research, and in particular the consultation expertise I provide in International Borders and Border Disputes.

My current research project inverts the focus to ask how international law produces space. I am currently writing two articles on examples of international law producing space, at sea and in outer space, and I am planning a monograph as a key output from this project.

I have presented my research at a wide variety of international conferences, including the Law and Society Association annual meeting, the Association of American Geographers annual meeting, and regularly at the Critical Legal Conference.

I have held visiting positions at Melbourne Law School and New York University. I co'convened the Critical Legal Conference 2023.

Teaching

I have a broad range of teaching interests and expertise. I have convened courses on Trusts and Equity, Legal History, Law and Literature, Interscholastic Mooting, and the Law of the Sea LLM course. I have also contributed lectures and seminars in Public International Law and Land Law. I take a research based teaching approach to all these subjects, which means two things. First, it means teaching as a researcher, and giving the students the skills to research themselves. Textbooks are inevitably out of date, and our students must be equipped to find their own answers. Second, it means teaching from research, particularly my own research, something which has been a core feature of the innovative Legal History course design.

I welcome PhD applications in international law, legal geography, legal history, and legal theory, particularly critical theory including feminist and third world approaches.

Administration

I have held multiple important administrative roles within the Law School, including Deputy Dean (Education) and Director of Undergraduate Studies.

I am a director of Law and Global Justice Durham, Deputy Director of IBRU: Durham Centre for Borders Research, and a steering committee member of Durham ARCTIC.